Kenner City Council members said they don't plan to take action against Civil Service Board member Martin Short, who put out a mailer attacking a legislative candidate despite the Louisiana Constitution ban on politicking by civil service officials.

The council appointed Short to the board in January and, by law, may not remove him. Individual council members could ask the district attorney to do it, but in recent interviews none of the seven council members expressed a willingness to take that step.

Councilman Kent Denapolis said the political flier doesn't affect whether Short can rule impartially on evidence before the Civil Service Board.

"I think he can still be objective," Denapolis said.

Short is vice chairman of the Kenner Fire and Police Civil Service Board. Along with political activist Ed Lancaster, he sent out the glossy mailer urging voters to defeat Michael McMyne in the 92nd House District race. McMyne lost the Nov. 17 runoff to Tom Willmott, R-Kenner.

"I really don't think I did anything wrong. I wasn't out politically campaigning," Short said Friday. "But I wanted to get a message across, and that's what I did."

Melinda Livingston, state examiner of the Louisiana Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service, said the Constitution bars Civil Service Board members from all political activity, including mail-outs opposing candidates.

Even though the council appointed Short to the board, it is not allowed to take him off. That's so that council members won't hold undue influence over their appointee's decisions.

"It's supposed to be difficult just for that reason," Livingston said.

Louisiana law says the district attorney may file a lawsuit to remove a Civil Service Board member if 25 residents sign a petition asking for such action. No petition has been filed with the Jefferson district attorney, however, said First Assistant District Attorney Steve Wimberly.

The City Council member with perhaps the most experience on the subject, Ben Zahn, said he plans to give Short the benefit of the doubt.

A removal petition was filed against Zahn in 1997, when he was the mayor's appointee on the Police and Fire Civil Service Board. Kenner Police Association members said Zahn crossed the line when he appeared at a fundraiser for state Rep. Glenn Ansardi, D-Kenner.

Zahn, a florist, said he was delivering balloons to the function.

"I was wrongly accused," he said Friday.

Zahn resigned the Civil Service Board, but not, he said, because of the complaint. He said he quit to take a position on the Planning and Zoning Board, which didn't have the long hours of the Civil Service Board.

"These people give up their time with no compensation at all," he said.
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BUT CAN THEY DANCE? Reviving an old tradition, the Kenner City Council serenaded constituents at the end of Thursday night's council meeting, the final one before Christmas. On council President Jeannie Black's direction, all seven members launched into the first verse of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

"With this council we love to do things like that, and we get along well," Black said. "We have a good time together, but we take care of business."

The solons' singing returns after a year or two of silence.

"We used to do that every year," Councilwoman Michele Branigan said. "Some years we wore hats."

Asked if they practiced before Thursday's choral collaboration, Branigan laughed, asking, "Does it sound like we practiced?"

She confessed that the council actually did flex its collective vocal chords a week earlier, at a karaoke get-together at the Beach House in Metairie.